Friday, July 13, 2018

LE MANS: Toyota Wins a fairly Mundane Procession

Although the Drivers might be saying it; I was
definitely left without saying "oh What a Feeling."

Lately in Formula 1 and Indy Cars, there's
been endless Debate over the subject of Boring Races, or the fact that Reality
TV and Duh World of "Infotainment" has largely Dulled our Senses over
what True Competition is.

And whilst I wish to take nothing away from
the countless Athletes; YES! Racing Drivers are truly World Class Athletes...

Nonetheless, I hope that the FIA and ACO are
Happy with what they got for giving Toyota the Keys to their first triumph at
Circuit de la Sarthe this year. By ensuring that the Artificial Equivalency
Formula was skewed largely in their favour.

Since really how much of a Publicity
"Bump" did the victory garner Toyota? Not to mention the somewhat
contrived "fairytale" outcome for that rookie Spanish Formula 1 guy,
Ci?

As I Don't know
'bout Y'all, but I'm really, really tired over the constant Horn-blowing 'bout
Fernando chasing this mythical Triple Crown. Especially since nobody seems to
talk about Juan Pablo Montoya only needing to win at le Mans to accomplish the
feat...

Per Tipicali, specifically since my Mondo
Overpriced Cable TV Behemoth comca$t, as SHIT!
I'm so happy to be paying for their All Cash $65b as in Billion! Takeover; Err
Merger with 21st Century Fox; but I digress...

thus, since I Don't have television access to
the race on a yearly basis, i.e.; NO (Fox Sports) FS2 or the Velocity Channel,
I traditionally listen to copious amounts of the race via Radio Le Mans on Zed
Internetz' instead, especially since I find 'Der Heindenmeir, nee John
Heinhaugh so entertaining!

Yet already smelling a Rat before the
Tri-colour was waved this year, I didn't bother tuning into the race until some
two-plus hours after it began at Six Bloody AM here on the West Coast.

As the Toy-Yoters' had already stamped Thar
Boot-prints upon the race, leading their nearest competitors by two laps, with
the Radio Le Mans Chaps predicting at this early hour that the Toyota's would dominantly
win the event by a whopping 17mins.

And thus, I grew restless during the day as
the Toyota's, in lock-step stretched their lead from 2-laps ahead to four. Then
at 5AMlocal time, the two Toyota's,
with the No. 7 leading the No. 8, with the latter having brought the gap down
to a miniscule 1.6 seconds between them. Then saw "K-Squared," nee Kamui Kobayashi
piloting the #7 stretching the gap out to a scant 8.8 seconds, and then up to a
robust 11-seconds.

Kobayashi's
lead, contracting to just 10-seconds saw the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids a massive
7-laps ahead of the first two LMP1 Privateers. With the #3 Rebellion Racing
leading it's "Star Studded" Seester' No. 1 by 1-lap.

At the 14 and 1/2 hour mark, in GTE Pro, the
#91 "Pink Pig" had led the majority of the race ahead of its Sister
#92 Rothmans "Smokey Smokes" liveried Porsche 911RSR, with the No. 68
"Stateside" Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, with le Hamburgular', aka
SeaBass', nee Sealmeister Bourdais at its controls. And a new fourth place car,
the No. 67 UK (WEC) Ford GT with Andy Priaulx behind the wheel.
Being shared by TK' Follow-your-Schnoz! Kanaan and Harry Tincknell
at the pointy end of the field.

As Scotty the "Iceman 2.0" Dixon's
No. 69 wasn't being mentioned at the time I took notes upon the various class
leaders, albeit I notice I've left out the G-Drive Racing #26 ORECA/Gibson,
which was P5 overall, and handedly leading the LMP2 class for many hours.

I came back for one last listen before
signing off two hours later, with nine hours remaining.

As the No. 8 had leapfrogged the No. 7 for the
overall lead, with both cars being assessed a one minute Stop 'N go penalty for
excessive speed in a Slow Zone. But afterwards, the #8 resumed leading by
40-second;

DRAT!

Not to mention that their lead had Ballooned out to
a staggering 10-laps advantage over the nearest rival, the#3 Rebellion Non-hybrid LMP1 Privateer
entry...

Shea Adam in the commentary booth had fun with
the Detroit Iron battle raging in the GTE Pro class between Corvette and Ford.
Noting how it was a Comic book's delight of Rocky vs. The Iceman, before Scott
Dixon drafted past Mike Rockenfeller into fifth place in class. givinga Porsche 1-2 followed by three Ford GT's,
with the lead Vette' demoted to P6.

Meanwhile the No's 26 and 77 still led their
classes respectively, i.e.; LMP2 and GTE Am, before I called it quits for the evening.

And then as I do every year, when switching
off, since I'm nine hours behind local French timeat Circuit de la Sarthe. I wondered if
there'd be any major changes when I arose the next morning? Especially with this
year's lack of Competizione in the LMP1 Prototype ranks for the overall
victory.

And what sounded like perhaps manufactured
results tipping the odds in the No. 8's favour, with Mike Conway ant Jose Maria
Lopez running some 2-4 seconds a lap slower; HUH?

Perhaps? Just perhaps so the Media and the
World could go Ga-Ga over some Spaniard named Fernando in P1, I elected to not
get up early this year, and would simply find out the results afterwards, since
the race would finish at 6AM Pacific; YAWN...

As the final
results made the entire event's outcome seem overly Anticlimactic...

Aftermath

But Not so Fast Grasshopper! as two days
after the race, I learned that the LMP2 Class winning G-Drive Racing entry had
been Disqualified for illegal Fuel Rig modifications; YOUCH!

Whilst the fourth place Ford GT in the GTE
Pro category also ran Afoul of the Rules, specifically for TK'
Follow-your-Schnoz! Kanaan failing to meet his minimum Drive-time requirements,
for which Scott Dixon was also given a similar penalty; Hmm? Perhaps they were
just both plain 'Ol Tuckered Out after flying to France immediately after
Texas?

And finally, making Toyota's win even
Hollower is the fact that they won the race over Thar severely Handicapped Non-hybrid
Privateer opponents by a staggering 12-laps! Which was nearly a distance of 100
Freakin' miles; Aye Karumba! Actually 8.47 miles times 12-laps equals 91.64
miles; CRIKEYS!